Sunday, October 17, 2010

We took the light rail and got off at the Theatre, ready to walk. It was a really warm day, I think the high was 85F!!! In OCTOBER!!!

We wandered around the 16th Street Mall and the surrounding streets, before caving and ducking into Taki's for an early lunch. BEST Japanese food I have ever had. MMMmmmm. I will have to take the kids there when they are here over the holidays.

We had purchased tickets to see the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, but we were plenty early and thoroughly enjoyed walking around, soaking in the lovely sunshine.

We ended up at the Capitol Building. I have only ever seen it while driving/riding in a car, and really had no idea how big or grand it was. One one set of steps is a brass marker that shows were 5,280 feet is- one mile- for the Mile High City.

We went in- and wow- what a place!Our intent was to go up to the cuppola and walk around to see Denver from up high, but alas, the balcony was closed. They did have some doors open to allow photos, and here is what we saw:

The Cathedral

The Scottish Masonic Center (round roof)

The Denver Art Museum and Public Library (center of photo)

Denver Courthouse with the beautiful Rockies behind it

Closer up- trying to see Red Rocks, a popular outdoor amphitheatre, which is northwest of where we live (Denver is northeast of where we live)

Office buildings? Not sure, but it was a nice view anyway!

More office buildings and that ultra blue sky we see so often!

I didn't know if I was allowed to take photos inside, so I didn't. But next time I will ask, because if I am allowed, I would love to show you the grandeur of this beautiful building.

Then it was time to head over to the Art Museum, as the King Tut tours were timed. We headed up to the exhibition, and I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. You know all the stuff you see in the ads and publicity about Tut- the golden caskets and all that? None of it was there.

They had some pretty interesting things from different pharoahs, and some odds'n'ends from King Tut's tomb, but I didn't want to see just his golden finger and toe coverings and sandals- I wanted to see the GRAND stuff!!!

The most impressive thing there, in my opinion, was a gigantic seated statue of Akhenaten. Even though some of the left side of his face was missing, it was beautiful. I was simply in awe of how detailed and how large it was.

The whole display was smaller than I thought it would be and really crowded. Too bad, really. Just a good example of hype I think.

When we visited the Museo Egizio in Torino this past summer, the beginning of our tour of the museum was kind of like that- but it ended much differently!

The Egizio is the largest collection and museum dedicated to Ancient Egypt outside of Cairo. They have many rooms of things and very cool things, including ancient textiles and real mummies. As we got to the last room, we thought: "Is that it?" Because it was raining heavily outside, we decided to go and look a little more, and went into a room that we thought we had been in, but hadn't- there were two enormous rooms of HUGE Egyptian statues, and they were breathtaking. Anyway, I digress.

After the tour, we went to see the 3D movie about the secrets of mummies and it was interesting.

Our tickets were good for the day anywhere in the museum, so away we went! I love me an art museum!

We saw a lot of beautiful work, a lot of things I didn't understand, a lot of thought-provoking work. It was great!

And I got a some of cool photos from there too- they had windows in random places. Of course there are a few that aren't fit to put here- some of the windows were so dirty, you can barely see what I was taking a photo of! lol

Panoramic view of the mountains

A small part of the Art Museum

View of the Capitol Building from the Museum

By the time we saw all we wanted of the museum, it was time to catch the Light Rail again- or wait till after rush hour.

A couple more shots on the walk back to the station:

Tribute to Christopher Columbus at Civic Center Park

The "gateway" from the park to the street- I would have liked to get some photos of Civic Center Park, but they were setting up for the Rock and Roll Marathon over the weekend, and it was a madhouse there. Next time, I promise!

Look who's peeking into the Denver Convention Center window! It's quite something to see- and you see him as soon as you walk out from the Light Rail, if you get off at the Theatre/Convention Center (the station is just past the bear)

He's 40 feet tall, 10,000 lbs, and I think the sculpture is titled "I See What You Mean", though he is known affectionately as the Denver Blue Bear.

We had a great day. I love Denver. I love the people, the city and all it's surrounding smaller cities, I love our community which is just a short 20 minute drive out of the city. It's a place I am happy to call home.